James McAuley
James Phillip McAuley (12 October 1917 – 15 October 1976) was an Australian poet, academic, journalist, and literary critic. It has been said of him that "no one else in Australian letters has so effectively exposed or ridiculed modernist verse, leftie politics and mindless liberalism".Peter Coleman, "Dealing in Damage", review of Michael Ackland, Damaged Men: The Precarious Lives of James McAuley and Harold Stewart, in The Weekend Australian, 10-11 March 2001, pp. R10-11 Life Youth McAuley was born in Lakemba, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. He was educated at Fort Street High School, and then attended Sydney University where he majored in English, Latin, and philosophy. In 1937 he edited Hermes, the annual literary journal of the University of Sydney Union, in which many of his early poems were published until 1941. He began his life as an Anglican and was sometime organist and choirmaster at Holy Trinity Church, [Hill, in Sydney. McAuley lost his Christian faith as a young man. In 1943 McAuley was commissioned as a lieutenant in the militia for the Australian Army, and served in Melbourne (in the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs [DORCA) and Canberra. After the war he also spent time in New Guinea, which he regarded as his second "spiritual home". Career McAuley came to prominence in the wake of the 1945 Ern Malley hoax. With fellow poet, Harold Stewart, McAuley concocted 16 nonsense poems in a pseudo-experimental modernist style. These were then sent to the young editor of the literary magazine Angry Penguins, Max Harris. The poems were raced to publication by Harris and Australia's most celebrated literary hoax was set in motion. In 1952 he converted to Roman Catholicism, the faith his own father had abandoned. This was in the parish of St Charles at Ryde. He was later introduced to Australian musician Richard Connolly by a priest, Fr. Ted Kennedy, at the Holy Spirit parish at North Ryde, New South Wales,cf. Australasian Catholic Record October 1995 and the two subsequently collaborated to produce between them the most significant collection of Australian Catholic hymnody to date, titled "Hymns for the Year of Grace". Connolly was McAuley's sponsor for his confirmation into the Roman Catholic Church. In his undergraduate years McAuley was influenced by both communism and anarchism, but although a man of the left, McAuley remained staunchly anti-communist throughout his later life. In 1956 he and Richard Krygier founded the literary and cultural journal, ''Quadrant'' and was chief editor until 1963. From 1961 he was professor of English at the University of Tasmania. A portrait of McAuley by J. Carington Smith won the 1963 Archibald prize. McAuley died of cancer in 1976, at the age of 59, in Hobart. Publications Poetry * The Darkening Ecliptic (with Harold Stewart, as "Ern Malley"). Melbourne: Reed & Harris, 1944. * Under Aldebaran. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1946.. * A Vision of Ceremony. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1946.. * The Six Days of Creation (illustrated by Leonard French). Adelaide: Australian Letters, 1963.Selected Biography, University of Sydney. Web, Nov. 22, 2014. * James McAuley: Selection and introduction by the author. Sydney: Angus & Robertson (Australian Poets), 1963. * Captain Quiros: A poem. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1964. * Surprises of the Sun. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1969. * Collected poems, 1936-1970. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1971. * Music Late at Night: Poems, 1973-1976. London: Angus & Robertson, 1976. * Time Given: Poems, 1970-1976. Canberra : Brindabella Press, 1976. * A World of its own. Canberra : Australian National University Press, 1977.. * Collected Poems. Pymble, NSW: Angus & Robertson 1994. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Australian Poetry Library.James McAuley (1917–1976), Australian Poetry Library, Web, Mar. 15, 2012.. Non-fiction * The End of Modernity: Essays on literature, art and culture. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1959. *''C.J. Brennan''. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1963. ** revised & expanded as Christopher Brennan. Melbourne, London, Wellington, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. * Edmund Spenser and George Eliot: A critical excursion. Hobart, Tas: University of Tasmania, 1963. * Versification: A Short Introduction. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1966. * A Primer of English Versification. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1966. * The Personal Element in Australian Poetry: Based on the 1968 lectures of the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at University College of Townsville. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1970. * The Grammar of the Real: Selected prose, 1959-1974. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1975. * The Rhetoric of Australian Poetry. Southerly 36:1 (1976), 3-23. Hymns * Hymns for the Year of Grace (with Richard Connolly). Sydney: Living Parish Series, 1956.Search results = ti:Hymns for the Year of Grace, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Centre Inc. Web, Nov. 22, 2014. * We Offer the Mass (contributor). Sydney: Living Parish Series, 1959. *''Songs of the Promise'' (contributor). Sydney: Living Parish Series, 1968. Translated * "The Song of Songs", in The Jerusalem Bible (edited by A. Jones). London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966. Collected editions *''James MacAuley: Poetry, essays, and personal commentary'' (edited by Leonie Judith Gibson Kramer). St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1988. Edited * Australian Poetry, 1955. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1955. * Generations: Poetry from Chaucer to the present day. Melbourne: Thomas Nelson, 1969. * A Map of Australian Verse: The twentieth century. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1975. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:James McAuley, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Centre Inc. Web, Nov. 22, 2014. Audio / video *''James McAuley Reads from His Own Work'' (45). St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1970. See also * List of Australian poets *List of literary critics References * * * * * * Notes External links ;Poems *James Philip McAuley at PoemHunter (11 poems) * James McAuley (1917-1976) in the Australian Poetry Library (320 poems). ;About *James McAuley in NNDB. * James McAuley at AustLit * James McAuley at The Rathouse. *McAuley, James Phillip (1917–1976) in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Category:1917 births Category:1976 deaths Category:Australian poets Category:Australian Roman Catholics Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:Australian people of Irish descent Category:University of Sydney alumni Category:Australian military personnel of World War II Category:University of Tasmania faculty Category:Cancer deaths in Tasmania Category:Australian literary critics Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:Catholic poets